


Deeper waters

by Starbat



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: F/F, anyways i will also be adding characters as they appear, azura is a siren because for real, bc no offense but where the FUCk are all the monster aus, but hey!!! here it is anyways, i dont have an excuse for this, or an update schedule, shes a water themed character with a beautiful singing voice, so yeah here have my incredibly gratitous siren au, sorry for talking in the tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-07
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-13 00:07:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7130177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starbat/pseuds/Starbat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She might be a drifter on land, but at least Corrin could count on having someone to come back to in the water. </p>
<p>AU where things are mostly the same except Azura is a siren and the plot of fates makes even less sense, probably.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hi what's up i have a Mighty Thirst for some gay waves and I like making pointless AUs!! Hope you enjoy!

It really was beautiful in Hoshido. Even with everything else weighing on her mind, even with all the things she’d learned in such a short span of time, that was what Corrin fixated on, because she was kind of an idiot like that - it really was beautiful in Hoshido.

So even when she rightfully should have been in the home she didn’t remember trying to wring answers out of a mother she never recalled so much as _dreaming_ about, she excused herself to go on a nature walk.

Because she was kind of an idiot like that.

Corrin internally scolded herself on the entire walk down to the lake, but even the self-loathing that came with her very deliberate avoidance of the issue couldn’t lessen the way she appreciated the scenery. The trees were so tall here, so green and, well, _alive_ – nothing like the starved, dark wooded trees that she saw on her way out of Nohr. The greens gave way to an even brighter green hilltop, and above even that, a sky that was turning a brilliant orange in the setting sun’s light.

Something about just the sight and the romance of it all made Corrin’s eyes sparkle. She’d never seen sights like this back in the fortress, but _gods_ , if this place really was her home, then she dearly regretted the fact that she hadn’t been here to watch these beautiful sunsets her whole life.

Ah. Well, maybe she didn’t regret it _too_ much, because had she grown up here she’d never have met her very beloved siblings, but –

….there was no real winning, here.

“I just had to go and spoil my mood again,” She sighed, quietly. Corrin kicked a stone down the path and made her way towards the docks, but something snapped her out of her sulking before she was able to kick the rock a second time.

Someone was singing.

Now alert, Corrin perked up, looking around for the source. She didn’t see anyone yet, but the song really was beautiful. She’d feel bad for interrupting, she mused.

Whoever was singing – she assumed it was a girl – had such a beautiful, resonating voice. It echoed around the lake as if it were their personal auditorium and not just a wet dent in the ground surrounded by trees. Something about the sound was enticing to her, exciting, even. Her heart raced for reasons she could not place. If she never heard another song in her life, she would still think herself lucky to have heard it.

Still, Corrin was Corrin, and in the end, she couldn’t resist the temptation to find the owner of the voice.

She approached the docks slowly, assuming that whoever was singing would be around the edge of the lake somewhere.

Somehow, it was both the right and wrong place to go.

The singer was at the edge of the docks, but she wasn’t standing on it or dipping her toes in like Corrin had expected.

Propping herself up by her elbows, a girl with pale blue hair clung to the dock, half in and half out of the water. It wasn’t so strange that someone would go for a dip in the summer heat, but –

Unless Corrin had missed out on even more than she previously thought she had, people generally did not have slits on the sides of their neck or shining, bumpy blue scales dotting their arms near the elbows.

Startled as she was, Corrin somehow didn’t make a noise and the blue haired – thing? Person? She looked very humanoid, and obviously she could speak, so it would be a bit cruel not to call her a person, wouldn’t it? – actually managed to draw to a close, taking a deep breath once her song was over.

Bright amber eyes opened and Corrin immediately found herself in the middle of direct eye contact.

“Um. Wow,” she said, eventually.

Because Corrin was kind of an idiot like that.

While she didn’t think there was anything particularly frightening about the phrase ‘Um, wow’, the girl in the lake recoiled as if Corrin had just threw a dagger in her direction, yelping and diving back into the water. The tip of a blue fin slips below the surface just as Corrin reached the end of the small dock.

She stands there for a moment and doesn’t say anything, but it doesn’t look like the girl is going to resurface any time soon. Corrin draws in a deep breath and huffs, dropping onto the deck and moodily sticking her feet in. Of course she scared her off; what had she expected to happen?

Corrin lay there for a little bit, until it started getting darker out and she knew that her family – and the thought still felt strange to her, calling these people her family – would be worried if she were out for much longer, so she pulled her now-pruney feet out of the water and stood up at the end of the dock. It was silly, but, it wasn’t the biggest lake in the world, so there was still a chance the blue haired girl would hear her if she said it loud enough – Corrin inhaled. “HEY!! Lake girl!!!! I don’t know if you can hear me, but I’ll come back tomorrow!!!” And then, as an afterthought, she shouted. “And I liked your song a lot too!!!”

Face flushed, she scurried back off for the palace, but not before throwing a last, cursory glance over at the lake.

Amber eyes blinked at her from the dock, and were gone in the next instant.

Gods, did she attract the _weirdest_ coincidences.

Ryouma greeted her halfway back, looking relieved. “I was wondering where you’d been.”

“Sorry. I got distracted,” She admitted, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. She wasn’t sure if she should say anything about the girl in the lake. “The nature here is so beautiful. So much different from Nohr – ah, well, not that I was actually able to see much of that, either. But the colors are much warmer.”

He nodded, looking ever so slightly pleased. “Hoshido is famous for it’s sunlight, I suppose. Still, try not to wander too far in that direction. The lake is trouble.”

“Trouble?” She blinked. “How so?”

“Call it a folk tale. Everyone thinks something lives in that lake.” He explained, stretching his arms out behind his head casually.

“….Something?” Corrin ventured cautiously.

He shrugged. “You don’t need to worry about it.”

She decided to push her luck a little and see if she could find out anything else, in detail. “Something like a girl with blue hair?” Corrin asked, feigning innocence.

Ryouma straightened his posture, arms dropping to his sides. “You saw someone?”

She shrugged. “I suppose I did. She was singing,” She said softly. “Her voice was beautiful. She looked so frightened when I showed up out of nowhere.”

“I see.” He replied skeptically. “It would be wise to keep your distance from now on, then. No siren song is going to be leading my sister into the lake.”

Hm. Looks like she wasn’t going to get anything new out of this after all. Still, at least she had an idea of where the ‘locals’ stood on the matter. The use of the familial term was still kind of strange, though.

She’d adjust in time. She was sure of it.

\----------------------------

The next day, Corrin was able to hold out a little bit longer before becoming overwhelmed. Between that and her promise to come back yesterday, it was more than apparent to her what she was going to do on her little cool down walk.

Sakura walked with her for some of the way there, and Corrin found herself warming to her company a little bit faster than she had been when it was in a big group. It seemed her other younger sister was better at dealing with this kind of contact. The redhead gave her a small, hesitant wave when they parted ways – Sakura was very understanding of the need for space.

Corrin hummed on her way to the lake, trying to get the tune of that song from yesterday, but it escaped her.

….Bummer.

There wasn’t any singing this time, and the girl wasn’t anywhere to be found, but Corrin shrugged it off and walked up to the docks anyways. She’d heard her yesterday, hadn’t she?

“Hello?” She asked, not wanting to yell like last time.

No response.

Corrin shrugged and kicked her feet around in the water a little, laying down on the dock so she could look up at the sky.

It was a beautiful, clear day, as days apparently tended to be in Hoshido. At least in this particular region. The ring of trees around the lake grew tall into the sky, almost making a picture frame of sorts from her perspective. “Everything here is so pretty…” She sighed appreciatively.

As if responding to her, a breeze ran through the area.

“I kind of wonder what it’s like in the winter. Is it as harsh as it gets in Nohr?” Felicia would probably like it here, but if it was too much hotter than Nohr it could be an issue for her. “I hope not.” She said. For some reason she just had to keep talking. “I don’t like when it’s cold, my limbs get all stiff. Leo used to joke that I was cold-blooded, which I guess I thought was funny at the time. If anyone is cold blooded, it’s Jakob, obviously. He’s the only person I know that doesn’t like dogs. I mean, really! Who doesn’t like dogs?” She shook her head, laughing quietly. She’d only seen one dog, Gunter’s old hunting dog, but she remembered being completely and utterly convinced that it was the cutest thing ever.

Idly, she wondered what dogs were like in Hoshido. She should ask.

Corrin was quiet for a little bit until she sat up and realized she hadn’t been talking to herself after all.

A good five feet away from where she sat, the girl from before was floating in place. She was almost entirely underwater, save for her upper face. Amber eyes glinted with what Corrin could only assume was curiosity. “Have you been listening to me this whole time?”

A nod. Corrin took a moment to think. “Well….do _you_ know anyone that doesn’t like dogs?”

The girl’s eyes made it look like she might be smiling. She shook her head no.

“Geez, you aren’t much of a talker, are you?” Corrin huffed, crossing her arms.

She sank a little bit lower in some weird, lake girl equivalent of a pout. Corrin read it as one, anyways.

“Well, if you aren’t going to say much, then I’ll just have to talk enough for both of us.” She said, conclusively. “I’m Corrin, by the way.”

And then she sat there and talked for nearly an hour about anything she could think of talking about. At around the same time as the day before, she got up to leave, stretching out her back while the other girl looked on curiously. “I should probably head in for now. I’ll come back tomorrow, though! Goodnight!”

“Goodnight,” The girl repeated back softly, surprising Corrin. It didn’t take long for her mouth to be back underwater, though, or for the entire rest of her, for that matter.

Still – that counted as a conversation, right?

Corrin grinned the whole way back.  

That was a continued pattern for a few days, and nothing seemed ready to change this time, either, but Corrin was happy enough to be hearing her say the words “good night”, so she wasn’t dissuaded in the slightest.

It was extra hot this time around, though. Corrin tugged at the collar of her undershirt and wondered if she shouldn’t have just asked for some casual clothes to wear instead of stubbornly wearing her armor every day. It was kind of too late for this line of thought, but oh well.

The girl in the lake had come to anticipate her, and with each visit seemed slightly more at ease. This time she was the closest she’d ever been, already leaning on the dock when Corrin walked up and greeted her with a wave and a somewhat overly chirpy “Hello!” Of course, she dove under and backed off a bit once she _actually_ reached the end of the dock, but it wasn’t as though she could expect her to completely warm up to her overnight.

It was weird, though, usually she’d resurface by now…..

Puzzled but confident her new friend would return, Corrin shrugged it off and did what she always did, sticking her feet in the water and staring out around the lake.

She yelped when hands clasped around her left leg and yanked her into the water.

Completely unprepared, Corrin sputtered and had tried to get her hair out of the way, one hand gripping the dock so hard her knuckles went white and the other slicking over the wet, gray mess. When she cracked an eye open, the culprit behind her sudden swim was there, not ten inches from her face.

She was giggling. Hand pressed to her mouth in an attempt to stifle the noise she was making and eyes screwed shut from laughter, it really couldn’t have been more obvious that she did it. Even if Corrin pretended there was anyone else that could have yanked her in to begin with.

“It couldn’t have hurt to ask first, could it?” She whined, giving her a playful splash. She kept laughing. Corrin sulked. At least she had a cute laugh.

By the time she’d stopped, she was fixing Corrin with a rather serious look. “So…you really aren’t…frightened?”

“I’ve seen scarier.” She replied, looking terribly unaffected by the whole thing. “Besides, between you and me, you’re very easy on the eyes.”

Flushed, her companion looked away. “Well, you haven’t exactly seen the rest of me,” She muttered, but quickly shook her head. “If you’re truly at ease, though…..” She cleared her throat and straightened out a little, meeting Corrin’s eyes again. “I’m….Azura. You’ve already told me your name, so, it’s only polite….”

She offered her a small, toothy grin and stuck out her free hand. “Nice to meet you, then.”

Azura took it hesitantly, and was able to return the smile even though the handshake wound up being a tad awkward. She had webbing between her fingers, Corrin noted absently.

Cool.

“..Are you certain you aren’t scared? You’ve been gripping the dock very tightly….” Azura trailed off, looking mildly concerned. Maybe just a bit sad.

Corrin gave a short, awkward laugh, the kind people used to preface information that they knew was going to embarrass the absolute shit out of them. “Ahah. Um, no, no, it’s not that I’m afraid, it’s just that….I maybe, possibly…..” She cringed and tried not to look near Azura’s face. “Can’t, swim.”

Azura stared at her so incredulously that Corrin was positive her face would still be flushed with embarrassment several years from now. “You can’t swim.” She repeated.

“I was never allowed near a lake!” She defended. “I was shut up in castle krakenburg for like, 14 years.”

“I would have thought not being able to swim would have come up sooner, what with me living in a lake, and all….” Azura trailed off.

Corrin shrugged defensively, unable to come up with an excuse.

She sighed. “You should….really consider learning how to do these things before deciding to spend hours at a time at the lake every day.” She said flatly, but then averted her eyes. “I already pulled you in today because I was feeling playful, but if I had dragged you out to the middle, you could have drowned….”

“I’m not worried!” Corrin replied, and meant it. “I’m sure you wouldn’t let me drown.”

Now it was Azura’s turn to have an awkward laugh. “I – I suppose you aren’t wrong, but that wasn’t really the point I had been going for. The point was that you should learn how to swim.”

She shrugged again. “Well, I’d ask for pointers, but I’m not sure how well that would go over. Considering the difference in anatomy, and all.” She replied, gesturing vaguely to Azura. Corrin couldn’t see spectacularly well through the water, but it was obvious enough by this point that she wasn’t expected to believe the flicking, dark tail wasn’t there.

Azura looked almost offended. “I’ve seen humans swim before!” She protested, and then, more to herself than anything, muttered, “It can’t be that difficult to teach you….”

“Well, if you’re _offering_ ,” Corrin trailed off, and Azura rolled her eyes and gently took her arm, the one holding onto the dock.

“You can hold on to me while you’re getting the basics,” She said, then grimaced when Corrin’s hand made her way to her back and pushed a somewhat stiff, spiny fin that appeared to start just below her neck. “…Please try to avoid touching that, though….” It didn’t feel like anything meant to be bent.

“Sorry!” Corrin yelped, pulling her hand away. It left her not holding onto anything for a moment, and she sank a little, but bobbed back up and held fast to Azura’s arm, instead. “Sorry,” She mumbled again, sheepishly.

Azura acknowledged that with a slight nod, and went about trying to show Corrin how to move her arms.

An hour later, Corrin could say with absolute certainty that she was a _shit_ swimmer. Even Azura, who, to her credit, seemed to be a very patient person, was apparently at a loss. “How can you spend so much energy on a movement that barely even pushes you forward…?” She grumbled, crossing her arms.

Corrin was back on the dock, now, wringing the water out of her hair and giving her new friend a sympathetic look. “Hey! It’s not a total bust. I definitely have the doggy paddle down now.”

Azura shook her head. “I’d hardly call that swimming.” She said flatly.

“But you _can_ call it ‘not drowning’.” Corrin replied cheekily. “Which is an entire step better than I was before today!”

“You certainly have an interesting perspective on things, if nothing else.” She admitted.

From somewhere further away, there was a voice. “Corrin! You still out here?”

The girl in question looked down the path. Vaguely, she could see Hinoka approaching. “Ah. Looks like I’m late to something. I’ll see you tomorrow….?”

Azura nodded quickly, and then she was gone.

Hinoka whistled when she’d made it all the way to Corrin. “What, you decided to go for a dip?” She nodded. “I don’t blame you, it was hot today. Still, you could have asked for a bathing suit or something, at least. You’re gonna have to clean that well tonight, or it’ll rust.”

Ah, damn. Corrin completely forgot she was still in her armor. She laughed and ran a hand through her hair. “You’re right. I guess I could have planned things better.”

They made idle conversation on the way back home, and when Corrin finally retired for the night, sleep came easily for the first time in days. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this week on gayer waves: local author is eternally bitter that Mikoto did not have more relevance and also that Corrin doesn't do more family stuff with her Hoshido family in general

It was quiet around the house in the morning, which she guessed wasn’t a bad thing or anything, but when her morning alarm for years had been the crash of a plate breaking on the floor – always accidental, of course, but surprisingly consistent in timing – then it felt a little off to be quietly nodded at on her way out the door, servants leery, but polite in a stiff, formal sort of way.

Corrin didn’t feel like stopping for breakfast and instead wandered around to the sideyard to see if any of her siblings were awake. Hinoka was there, rending the limbs off a training dummy, and further away, she saw Takuimi practicing with his bow.

Needless to say, it did not take her a very long time to pick which one she wanted to talk to.

Corrin waited respectfully for Hinoka to finish her set of lunges before walking up from the side – Hinoka had acknowledged her with a grunt when she first approached, and now turned to face her, wiping sweat out from under her bangs and giving her a brief smile. “Good morning.”

“Morning, Corrin!” She replied cheerfully. Hinoka always seemed spectacularly happy whenever she said Corrin’s name; she always felt just a little bad about that. It wasn’t as if she could have prevented her own kidnapping, of course, but it was just a little bit bittersweet to know she’d caused so much grief to someone that she herself had completely forgotten about.

“How long have you been awake?” Corrin asked, head cocked. “I haven’t seen many other people out and about at this hour.”

“Only around a half hour,” Hinoka replied in a conversational tone. “I like to get my training in during the mornings so I can do rounds during the day.” She paused for a second. “What are you doing awake?”

She shrugged. “I just woke up. I haven’t had the time to eat breakfast yet, so I thought maybe I could find one of you and…”She coughed. “I mean, you’ve probably eaten already, sorry. I can go look for Sakura if-“

“I can take you out to breakfast!” Hinoka cut in eagerly, eyes glistening. “I know just the place! You loved it when you were little!”

Corrin had to laugh at the excitement rolling off of her. “You really remember what kind of foods I used to like?”

She nodded, posture ramrod straight as if she was answering a life-or-death question. “Of course I do!” She said, quite seriously.

She returned the sentiment with a mischievous grin. “We’ll have to see how well this knowledge holds up, then.”

Hinoka practically sprinted towards the square, pulling Corrin along in a way that was just short of dragging her, but undoubtedly much more pleasant. Corrin laughed while she ran alongside her. She caught Takumi giving her the stink eye from the range and decided it would be the totally mature and sisterly action to stick her tongue out at him, playfully.

He flipped her off and went back to shooting. Corrin snorted and went back to running. That was one kind of sibling relationship, she supposed. Well, he’d have to like her eventually.

…probably.

Fast forward a few minutes and Hinoka, who had miraculously not even been _winded_ from the run down, was ordering two plates of food from a man at a counter. It smelled like fish here. Corrin liked it.

“I know it’s nothing coming from the castle kitchens, but this is the freshest catch in town.” Hinoka said, a hint of pride in her voice. She puffed her chest out. “Last time we were here you ate them clean out of tuna, and you were only five then. Do you still have that legendary appetite of yours?”

Corrin thought back to the many, many times during her youth that they’d be eating a food she liked – steak, for example, which Xander would tease her about because it was expensive and “of course our little princess would have such a rich taste” – she shook her head. Got to stop doing that. Not in this country, not with her other siblings.

Anyhow, she remembered how she’d take her seconds, and then when Jakob said she couldn’t have thirds she’d very unstealthily take the food off of her siblings’ plates in relatively quick succession.

Was it unhealthy for a girl to try and eat four servings by herself? Certainly. Did it stop her? Of course not.

Oh, she’d been quiet for a while. Her new big sister (or her old one?) was still staring at her expectantly.

“……..I don’t know if I’d call it ‘legendary’,” Corrin settled on saying, face flushed, because she was too embarrassed to admit she might have issues and too honest to outright lie.

Hinoka laughed at her.

She pouted for a bit after that.

They both got served a pretty big plate of fish, and Corrin froze for a moment. Yes, it smelled delicious, but…..

Would Azura be upset with her for this?

…….That was so childish she embarrassed herself just thinking it. Indecision over with, Corrin quickly tried to recover and eat it, but she was clumsy with the utensils here, hands unused to gripping chopsticks and too impatient to get eating to be bothered to pause and figure it out.

People were staring. Corrin lowered her head even further, mentally questioning her decision to go to a public food vendor when she _knew_ this was going to happen.

Hinoka very pleasantly tried to help her fix her grip and Corrin abruptly remembered that, oh, yeah, it was because she figured it would mean a lot to Hinoka. Once she had become vaguely competent with the chopsticks with some help, Corrin made very short work of the fish.

…Very, very short work. Hinoka whistled. “Ever think you might’ve been a dolphin in a past life or something? Just curious.”

Corrin shrugged and gave her the most sheepish smile she could muster. “It tastes good.”

They spent another good half an hour talking before Hinoka had to go on patrol and, seeing little else to do while her mother was at court helping people, Corrin made her way to the lake again.

* * *

She was really getting to enjoy the walk down here, Corrin mused. It wasn’t like it was a huge drag even before, but it was nice to feel like she was actually familiar with it by this point; she still sometimes got lost in the castle and that’s where she _slept_.

Corrin looked around for a moment before deciding nobody was around and that she could probably get Azura’s attention now. “Azura! Are you awake yet?”

Nothing happened for a moment, so she prepared to try again, but something big moving under the water caught her attention. Azura surfaced and raised an eyebrow. “You’re quite early today.”

“Sorry, I was worried you might be sleeping. I didn’t wake you up, right?”

Azura shook her head; Corrin sighed in relief. “I promised I’d try a tea ceremony with Sakura today in the afternoon, and my mother wanted to spend some time with me in the evening,” She explained. “So I just didn’t want you to think I forgot to come today, you know?”

“That’s kind of you.” She swam up to the edge of the docks and peered over it curiously; Corrin lay on her front side and propped her head up so they could talk face to face without her having to get in the water. Azura looked pleased.

They just sort of enjoyed each other’s company for a moment, a comfortable silence washing over them as Corrin studied Azura’s face and Azura presumably did the same thing. She had a pretty face, Corrin thought, maybe a bit reminiscent of Camilla’s if she looked hard enough. Perhaps a bit more prominent of a jawline. She only just noticed the little light blue spots dotting the edges of her jaw – small, bumpy little scales, scattered about in uneven intervals, though they seemed to cluster and form a little more densely the further to the sides they got, around her gills.

In a moment of apparent boldness, Azura reached over and touched one of Corrin’s ears, fingers feather-light on the tip of it. “They’re so pointed,” She mused, but it didn’t seem to be in a bad way. “It reminds me of an elf, or a little druid or something.”

Corrin flushed. “I don’t know why they’re like that, really,” She said, just to work her way into changing the subject more fluidly. “I remember not liking it as a kid, though. My friend Flora said when I was thirteen she caught me getting ready to cut the tips off with a pair of scissors.” Azura looked startled at that, so she quickly waved her hands around. “Obviously I didn’t! Apparently it was part of some grand plan to disguise as a servant and sneak out. She convinced me that a hat would hurt less.”

Azura snorted at that. “Well, did it?”

“We didn’t have any hats,” Corrin shrugged. “It totally would have worked, though.”

“Sure,” She replied, smiling in a knowing way. “They certainly wouldn’t have noticed their princess had gone missing.”

Corrin nodded. “Obviously.” They went silent for a bit again and Corrin looked around the lake for something to talk about before her mind went back to the morning.

“…..Hey, Azura?” She asked, fixing her with a sudden, intensely curious look.

Azura actually looked kind of startled by the abruptness of it all, but she played along. “Yes, Corrin?” She answered carefully.

“What do you _eat_?” She asked, bluntly.

Obviously, that wasn’t the kind of question the lake-dweller was expecting, because she did a double take. “What do I eat.”

“Well, yeah, I mean, if you can’t leave the lake, it doesn’t really give you a whole lot of food options, so I was just, you know, curious.” She explained, twisting a lock of hair around her finger.

Azura rolled her eyes but looked a good deal more at ease. “Usually I just have fish,” Corrin was vaguely relieved despite how obvious of an answer that was, but it was the next part that surprised her. “Sometimes, though, I’ll take a little from a farm nearby – there’s a fairly short path through the woods to their larder. I don’t do it much, or often, but it’s nice to mix it up every now and then.”

“Really? I never noticed any streams or anything branching off from the lake,” She said doubtfully. How would Azura get there in the first place? While slightly entertaining, the mental image of her dragging herself, tail and all, through the woods seemed a little implausible. “And you couldn’t possibly drag yourself there.”

Azura looked around anxiously, like she was going to share something very confidential, and tugged at something around her neck. The wet surface glinted and she realized it was a small chain necklace; something she hadn’t noticed before. She pulled a small blue pendant out from under the water, attached to the necklace. She looked up at Corrin a bit hesitantly; Corrin did her best to give her a reassuring smile.

“I can be on land, sometimes.” She said gingerly, rubbing the pendant between her thumb and forefinger. “It’s a little bit of a tiresome spell, but the pendant gives me some aid. It’s not really what it was meant for, but it’s helpful.”

Corrin blinked. “Really?” An affirmative nod. “Cool!” She didn’t pry any further; Azura looked relieved again.

“So, what do _you_ like to eat?” She asked quickly, prepared to change the topic.

She shrugged. “I’ll eat anything you put in front of me.” A pause. “...Okay, maybe not _anything_. But most foods. I don’t like natto and I have a preference for warm foods.”

“What’s natto?”

Corrin wrinkled up her nose in distaste. “It’s gross, is what it is.”

Azura laughed. “I’ll have to take your word for it, then.”

There was a lull in conversation again; Corrin wondered if that was something that was prone to happening with Azura. She certainly didn’t seem uneasy with the silence, but the other girl would still much prefer to be talking. Words helped fill the space between her thoughts, being friendly helped her to forget for a moment that all her friends were hundreds of miles away and missing her.

“What’s your favorite color?” She asked, abruptly.

“Why the sudden question?” Azura replied, eyebrow raised. “It’s a little random, is all…”

Corrin shrugged a little. “I dunno, I just wanted to make conversation.”

Azura’s expression settled into a knowing look. “You don’t like the quiet, do you?”

To that, all Corrin had to offer was a small shrug. Azura seemed to take it as a response anyways.

She tipped her head to one side. “You want to know what my favorite color is?” Corrin nodded. “To be frank, I don’t think I have one.”

“What? Really?” Not to assume or anything, but Corrin had kind of figured she had a decent guess. Her face must have said as much, because Azura rolled her eyes.

“I’m guessing you thought it was blue?” Ah, so maybe she was a little transparent. Corrin sheepishly nodded; Azura shrugged. “It’s a lovely color, but considering it’s nearly all I see…..”

“Ugh. Fair point, fair point…” Corrin conceded. “But you still have to like _some_ color or other, right? I mean, I also have a hard time picking, but I at least know I’m partial to blues and greys.”

She raised her eyebrow as if she really didn’t see the point of picking a favorite color when she could enjoy them all equally, but also didn’t see the point in ruining Corrin’s fun. She hummed for a moment, apparently trying to come to a consensus with herself. Corrin looked on in anticipation and eventually Azura turned to meet her eyes. “I suppose if I absolutely had to pick one, it’d be red.”

“Really?” Corrin blinked. “I don’t see anything red around here.”

Azura just giggled in response. Corrin eventually came to the conclusion that the leaves here must change color in the fall.

“So, why did you come here?” She asked eventually, idly picking at her elbow. “Not the lake, I mean. The whole….you know, the territory. You mentioned you were from another place, a while ago.”

“Why did I come to Hoshido?” Corrin clarified. Azura nodded; she sighed in response. “I didn’t necessarily ‘come’. Was taken, would be a better choice of words, but I’m a very willing prisoner, if you can even call me that.”

She expected a comment, or some sort of question about the circumstance, but Azura was still sitting patiently by. It probably went without saying that she was supposed to elaborate, anyways.

Corrin took a deep breath. “I found out I was born here, and taken when I was very little. I didn’t remember it, but I know in my heart that the royal family here is not lying to me. I think I remembered a little of that day. Not so much that it removed all doubt, but it removed enough. I think I must like it here, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it where I used to live. It’s becoming somewhat of an issue for me, actually. I don’t know what to do.”

“What’s troubling you?” Azura asked curiously, angling her head in just the slightest bit. “If you were kidnapped by both, then should you not at least have an idea of where you preferred?”

“Not a clue,” Corrin said despondently. “I’ve been treated kindly by both. I was deprived of my upbringing here, but not in Nohr. By right, I am supposed to live here, but it’s very difficult, walking away from the place you were cared for and raised. I love them both, but the countries are at war, or near it, in the very least.”

“You’re afraid of choosing a side.” Azura was intuitive like that, intuitive and empathetic. She offered a sympathetic look and put a hand on Corrin’s arm while she finished.

“I can’t escape the conflict. Not forever, at least. I don’t know what I’ll do.”

She let the thought sink for a moment, part of her glad it was off her chest and another, slightly bigger part of her annoyed with herself for dumping all of her problems on Azura. For once, though, she wasn’t the one to break the silence.

“…It’s my understanding that this is a sensitive topic. For that I am sorry.” Azura said slowly, and while Corrin was quick to try and interrupt, tell her it was okay and that it wasn’t _that_ sensitive of a topic, really – she kept going. “If – If it helps, I would be…” She stopped for a second, then, having reorganized her thoughts, went on. “I would be more than willing to listen, if I can do nothing else to help.”

That was…surprisingly sweet. Corrin flushed. Azura looked to have a similar expression. “Thanks.”

Azura just nodded quickly. They had a longer, more comfortable silence at that, until Corrin finally drew a breath and turned her attention back to Azura. “So, I’ve told you what’s happening up on land. Have any fun lake drama for me?”

“I’m afraid not,” she replied in an amused tone. “It’s fairly boring down here.”

“Aw, I’m sure you’re just saying that because you live here.” Corrin replied off-handedly. “I bet it’s really nice!”

“Oh, really?” Azura asked, eyes glinting mischievously.

“Yeah, really!” She replied, just as playfully. “You’re totally holding out on me, aren’t you?”

Azura grinned, looking hesitant for a moment before her good mood won out. “How well can you hold your breath?”

Corrin grinned back.

* * *

Although she was a shit swimmer, her lung capacity was at least proven to be okay, ish, when she was really motivated to hold her breath. Or when she was really focused on something.

At the moment, she was both.

Since Corrin herself wasn’t a terribly good swimmer, and all of the interesting things were deeper in the lake than she would otherwise reach, Azura was helping her down, pulling her by the shoulders. It had hurt to open her eyes underwater at first, but eventually she got used to the sensation – thankfully this was a freshwater lake, and not the ocean, or else she was sure it would hurt much more.

It was blurry, but she could still make out some things: piles of rocks, tangled tree roots suspended in mid-water from the sides and the island-esque outcropping just shy of the center of the lake. Sunlight trickled down from the surface like a fluid of its own, and the lake was a fluctuating shade of light, pretty blues. It made the dirt and stone ‘walls’ look much more appealing than they likely would have seemed from above.

She could see Azura while she swam, and while her vision was blurred and distorted this was the best chance she’d had so far to get a look at the tail she’d seen so little of thus far.

It was a dark, coiled thing that moved fluidly in the water, flicking one way and then the other to bring them down faster than legs ever could. A few whispy, frail looking fins trailed off it near the end, seemingly dissipating into the water, out of her sight.

Corrin had to remind herself to keep her mouth shut when they made a sharp, abrupt turn and Azura pointed to something – a school of fish, it looked like. Some bubbles escaped. She was opening her mouth, but if she was saying anything it was all gibberish to Corrin.

She shrugged helplessly and a confused expression crossed Azura’s face for a moment before realization struck and she flushed with embarrassment. She pointed up and Corrin nodded, feeling lightheaded.

Still, at least this had confirmed that her homeland was just as pretty underwater as it was above.

Corrin finally released the breath she’d been holding when they broke the surface and took a few deep ones to restore it, while Azura fiddled with her necklace. “Um, sorry about, down there. I forgot that talking doesn’t really…..work, underwater.”

“That’s fine,” She laughed. “I got the gist of it anyways. You wanted to show me the fish?”

She nodded. “I thought you’d like to see them, I suppose. They’re really all that moves down here.”

Corrin nodded back. “It was nice. My eyes hurt a little now, though.” She laughed a little.

Azura returned the laugh a touch awkwardly.

“Thanks,” She said sincerely, and that seemed to calm her down a little.

“You’re welcome. You should probably be leaving to dry off soon, though.” Azura pointed out. “If I remember correctly, you had a tea party to get to?”

Corrin jolted. “Shit! You’re right!” She scrambled to get back onto the dock, Azura rolling her eyes and giving her an unnecessary but helpful push. Corrin shook herself off like a wet dog, although it didn’t do as much good as it did make her look silly. She turned around and gave a hurried wave. “Bye! See you tomorrow!”

“Goodbye.” Azura called back, looking contented.

Corrin ran the whole way back and ended up nearly drying all the way off that way. She wasn’t late to the tea with Sakura and they had a good time.

Maybe living here wasn’t so stressful after all.

* * *

“Hello? Mother?” Corrin called, wandering cautiously into the room she knew the woman used as her personal chambers. She could never quite help but feel she was intruding in here – her siblings she had quickly adjusted to, but a new, adult parental figure in her life was another thing all together.

Mikoto was kind, painfully so, and Corrin longed to reciprocate that affection but never quite had it in her.

Perhaps having a few one-on-one conversations could help to ease her into it.

The queen looked up from her work, scattered papers and a surprisingly disorganized desk for someone who seemed so mature and serene. “Yes, dear?”

Corrin straightened her back. “I was told you wished to see me,” She said bluntly, voice level. It was instinct, something nailed into her from the visits with Garon. A parent was something to be addressed like a general, a commander.

Her mother waved her off and motioned for her to sit at the bed with her, and Corrin hesitantly followed instructions. Mikoto finished a few lines on whatever she was writing and tucked it away before settling into the bed with her. She gingerly put an arm around Corrin’s shoulder; she flinched away at first but gradually eased into it. “You seem distant. If I’ve made you uncomfortable…” She started, but Corrin shook her head.

“Far from it. I’m just…..adjusting. If anything, I feel that my distance is unfair to you.” She admitted, pulling a little at the sleeves of her nightwear, arms crossed. “Everyone seemed excited to have me here. I just wish I could recall enough to share the sentiment.”

“You don’t need to force yourself, dear.” She replied, tracing the line of Corrin’s chin with a hand. She was so gentle. Corrin leaned into the touch, eyes drooping. “If you spend all your time pining away for what you can’t remember, you might miss something more important happening right now.”

That got a brief grin out of her. “I can’t really argue with that.”

Mikoto – mother, she corrected herself – hummed in response. “How have you been doing? I hope your siblings are treating you kindly.”

“They are.” She replied nonchalantly, pretending she didn’t have to count Takumi. It earned her a somewhat curious look, but the queen didn’t pry.

“Ryouma tells me you enjoy walking down to the lake a little ways away.” She said, slowly. It didn’t raise any alarms with Corrin, so she continued, seeing as her daughter was content to doze off on her shoulder otherwise. “I can see why, myself. A little fresh air is always wonderful, especially in times like these. Is there anything in particular you find relaxing?”

Corrin nodded again. She wondered if she should say anything about Azura. On one hand, people seemed to know she was there, but on the other, Corrin had yet to determine how exactly people felt about that. “I made a friend,” Is what she settled on saying.

She smiled at that but didn’t say anything and they had a comfortable silence wherein Corrin gradually leaned more and more on her mother and her mother began to calmly stroke her hair, a soothing, repetitive motion. Corrin had very nearly dozed off again at the sensation of a firm, warm hand running through her hair, but was awake enough to remember that she’d been called in for a reason. “What did you want me for, earlier?” She asked drowsily.

“Oh, I’d nearly forgotten about that.” The queen said, looking almost embarrassed. It was a strange look on her. “I was wondering if tomorrow I might take you out to town with me. I would like to…formally, announce your return.”

“Oh,” Corrin replied. She wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“If you want me to wait longer, or need more time, I –“

She shook her head and took her mother’s hand, directing her eyes towards hers. “I would love to, mother.” And then, after a pause, grinned a little bit. “Of course, I’ll want to make it an outing, too. Could we perhaps get something to eat afterwards?”

Mikoto looked overjoyed.

Corrin idly wondered if maybe she really did like it more here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> stick around for next chapter, we're going to be seeing some of Azura's perspective on things and also, coincidentally, it is when Shit Goes Down


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the lengthy wait! I did say i didn't have a schedule for this but I'm thinking i should make one to avoid waits like this happening again haha. That aside, i hope you enjoy! I feel like Azura can either come off as observant or a total Drama Queen, rip haha. just know that i was trying to take it seriously lmao

Spots of sunlight filtered down into the water, obscured by the waves up top until they became little more than brief pieces of the sky coming down for a visit. Azura stared up, through the water and into the distorted image of the sun – white hot and yet useless so far below – with half-lidded eyes. 

Afternoons were quite boring like this.

Feeling somewhat moody, she turned, resting her head on it’s side so she could look elsewhere. The piles of sand and dirt weren’t exactly fascinating, either, but at least it gave her some time to let the bright spots fade from her eyes.

She wondered what Corrin was doing right now.

Something about the ash-haired girl just made Azura’s gut twist and turn in an unfamiliar but not wholly unpleasant way, and she could never seem to put her finger on it. She’d only known her for such a brief time, such a very brief time, but something in her ached with sympathy for Corrin. With the desire to get closer.

Maybe she was lonely.

It was kind of a given, when she hadn’t spoken to another person in as long as Azura had, but even still, Corrin fascinated her so thoroughly she could only believe it was some sort of destiny that they met here. Corrin was the moonlight, shining brightly just out of her reach, and Azura was the ocean, raising herself higher and higher in hopes of getting just a touch, a taste, of those pale beams. To brush that hair out of her face….

Ah, there was the feeling again. Azura curled inwards, arms looping around her bent tailfin like a sulking child being forced to sit in a corner.

Maybe she just had a crush, she admitted finally, seeing as by this point, her own thoughts were beginning to embarrass her. Her face flushed just at the idea.

“What have I gotten myself into now….?” She muttered, watching the bubbles from her breath trail ever upwards only to pop at the surface. She wondered if her voice was heard in them when they released the air into the outside world.

Azura sighed, gills raised almost fully only for the water and air collected to rush back out when she released it.

This was getting ridiculous. Azura finally gave up on her usual cloudgazing routine and swam up to the surface, peering around at every corner for any sort of onlooker. When none were found, she swam up to the dock and pulled herself up just a bit, enough to admire the sights on the pathway. Corrin said this morning that she and her mother were going to go out to town this afternoon to announce her return formally. Azura wondered if she’d bring back some of the food she’d been talking about, how there were stalls and vendors upon vendors out in the street. It sounded so fun.

A bird passed by overhead, a shrill caw escaping its’ beak. Azura looked up. More began to follow it until it seemed every bird in the forest was retreating far into the hills.

Before she had the chance to wonder if that was some sort of bad omen, the world shattered.

There was the sound of an explosion and a wave rushed into the forest, force bending back trees that had stood tall for centuries, possibly, and the force of it blew Azura back into the water. Short, choppy waves pushed against her as she swam back into the dock, too morbidly curious to tear her eyes away for a second.

It looked like the actual wave of….something, though Azura shuddered to think of the feeling it left as it passed by her body – had passed, but it left a mark. From the epicenter, where the noise had come from, smoke drifted into the air.

That had been where the capital city was.

Azura held her breath for one, two instants, waiting for something to disrupt the unnerving silence.

There was a low sound that rose in pitch until the ground itself seemed to vibrate with it. A furious roar. It made her shudder in almost the same way the wave had – something was very, very wrong.

She groped around her neck until she found the chain, fingers closing around her pendant until her knuckles went white. “Mother, if you’re out there….grant me strength.” She mumbled, eyes shut tightly.

And with that, she launched herself out of the water, muttering her personal spell all the while. Her first step hurt, badly, but she forced one foot in front of the other until she grew used to the foreign feeling and the dagger beneath her body and _ran_ into the city, dress clinging to her form as soon as it was being shaped.

* * *

Willpower or otherwise, Azura still wasn’t very used to being on her own two feet, and had certainly never gone as far as the city. Her throat burned with every breath she inhaled, a burning cool that told her she should stop and catch her breath for real instead of this false breathing she did on her run, but she still wasn’t close enough, if she could just run a little further –

For all her haste, when she finally made it to the epicenter, she nearly bumped into someone, the first living being she’d seen on her mad dash.

Some sort of priest? She forgot what they were called, but the girl was dressed in a way that was reminiscent, at least. And she was certainly nobility. Maybe one of Corrin’s siblings?

She looked afraid, and then surprised at Azura’s sudden appearance. “A-are you a….survivor?” She asked, tentatively.

“Corrin,” Azura responded dumbly, after a particularly hearty breath that made her throat catch fire all over again. “Is she,” Breath. “Somewhere,” Breath. “Here?” Her lungs felt near-collapsing.

The girl’s only response was wide, fearful eyes, and then, quietly, “I-I don’t know. She’s – she’s here, but I don’t – I don’t know, if she’s conscious.”

Azura coughed a little until her breathing had evened out almost enough for a competent conversation. “She is asleep?” Or injured. Or worse. Azura tried to shake the thought.

“No.”

“Then…..?” Azura left the question unasked, and the girl lifted one arm a bit shakily and pointed into the center of the plaza where a battle was going on.

Well, battle was being a bit generous.

It was a slaughter.

There were groups of who she assumed to be friendly soldiers clustered around the left, but it was to the right that this priestess was pointing, at a strange shape that roared and stomped and gored enemy soldiers on its antler-like horns. A long, thrashing tail extended behind it, and thin wings, membrane stretched taught and bent in the wrong direction for flight extended from its back. A cool, impassive blue plate of scale where a face should have been. Fury radiating from it anyways.

Despite her lack of familiarity with any creatures resembling this, a name leapt into her mind – Dragon.

It was almost too obvious, in retrospect, that Corrin was not as human as anyone had believed her to be. Azura thought back to the last time they had spoken, just that very morning when none of this had happened yet, about the bright red eyes and pointed ears and just the faintest sight of a fang-like tooth through a small smile.

Of course.

Azura took another deep breath. “Thank you,” She said finally, even though the girl’s attention had long since been drawn away when she raced towards the friendly soldiers to wave some sort of staff.

There weren’t many of the strange soldiers left, the ones that faded purple to transparent and then back in, light fluctuating around their bodies in a way Azura recognized but was too agitated and worried to place. With that in mind, she took a step towards the dragon, Corrin.

She showed no signs of stopping her rampage, even when there was nothing in front of her to strike. Azura swallowed painfully and took another step, feeling the raw skin of her foot stick to the plaza ground; she’d started bleeding at some point on the run but had never stayed still long enough for it to matter until now. Her throat was still somewhat pained, but she allowed herself a bit of time to wait. Maybe Corrin would stop soon.

When nothing changed in the next few moments, Azura turned to her only ace in the hole and began to sing.

“ _You are the ocean’s grey waves…”_ It got her attention. Now, the hard part would be keeping it. Doing her best not to falter, Azura closed the distance between the two of them with rhythmic, dancing steps, and found the dragon to be moving closer to her as well. “ _Destined to seek…”_ Soft blue lights sprang up around from her, drawn from the air itself as her pendant glowed with the same energy. Her steps grew lighter _. ”Life beyond, the shore….just out of reach……..”_ All she had to do was continue singing.

They were so close now, she could reach out and touch Corrin, so it’s what she did, tentatively, placing her unfamiliar, human hand on the blue plating and dragging it down slowly. That was one stroke, and Corrin seemed to be quieting –

On the other side of the battlefield, someone yelled, and it drew Corrin out of her daze and suddenly Azura was on the ground, head aching and ringing with the concussive force of concrete on the back of her skull.

Okay, so she had a little further to go. Grimacing from the pain, Azura propped herself up as best she could and tried to go on, before the lights faded. She continued her song in a lower voice.

She became painfully aware of something _like_ a hand, but not quite a human one, tightening around her neck. “Please,” She started, struggling to take a deep enough breath to ask her to go back to how she usually was, but it ended up not mattering in the end, because when she had finished the verse Corrin suddenly wheeled back as if she’d just been set on fire.

From there, the lights surrounded Corrin and withdrew, leaving little other than a trace of blue flame, an outline that had stripped away her dragon form. Corrin sat supporting her weight with her hands, seeming dazed.

Azura rubbed her neck where she had been grabbed and stood up, stumbling over to Corrin. She could feel the pain in her feet again. “Are you….alright..?”

“Urgh….” Came the unintelligible response. Corrin stood up and tried to dust herself off, flicking her hands even though they seemed perfectly clean, trying to brush away unseen filth. “I….yes, I’m okay. Are you?”

She nodded tentatively, and the relieved smile it earned from Corrin only made her feel a little guilty about the white lie. “What are you doing up here? You’re ….” Corrin gestured helplessly to Azura’s legs.

“Human,” Azura supplied, taking the lull in panic, anger or life-threatening situations as an opportunity to lean up against a wrecked statue and take some of the pressure off her poor feet. “More or less.”

Corrin bit her lip and nodded, absently running a hand through her hair. “I – I feel so disgusted with myself, I didn’t think –“ She paused and looked around at the decimated plaza, “I… _I_ didn’t do this, right?” Corrin asked in a small, insecure voice.

“Of course not.” Her response was immediate, even though Azura actually couldn’t be sure, seeing as she hadn’t been there. Corrin looked like she might have wanted to call her out on that, but their conversation was abruptly crashed by a few others that Azura had forgotten about.

Ignoring the pain, she slunk away from the group approaching, trying to make herself appear smaller behind Corrin while she greeted what could only be her siblings. The girl from earlier stood meekly behind the tallest, a man with a red helmet, and upon noticing Azura gave her a curious look and a shy wave.

She waved back in much the same way.

“Corrin, what _was_ that?” The older looking girl was the first to speak, rushing up and grabbing Corrin by the arm – not cruelly, or with ill intent, but Corrin pulled away anyways.

“I don’t know. It’s never happened before.” She answered in that same, quiet voice.

Another sibling shoved forward, except he did do so with ill intent, just the look on his face furious enough to make Corrin wince away. “What _that_ was doesn’t matter! You’re a beast that came here to kill her own mother!”

“Takumi, stop.” The older brother commanded, stepping forward as well. Azura backed up a little further. Corrin noticed and tried to stand a little bit more in front of her.

“She’s a _murderer_!” He retorted, all but grinding his teeth together. “What part of that requires me to stop? I should shoot her down where she stands.”

“You can’t say that,” the youngest one interrupted. “She looked shocked….Corrin didn’t mean for any of this to happen…..”

He scowled at her, but before the argument could escalate any further, the older brother got everyone’s attention. “I believe Sakura, and I believe Corrin. We aren’t killing anyone right now.” He paused. “What we should be doing is thanking this stranger for stopping our sister.”

Azura swallowed as everyone’s attention abruptly landed on her again.

Corrin looked kind of relieved, at least, so it would seem she had no choice but to bear it while the other girl recovered her wits. “There is…no need. I came to help.”

“And help you did,” He replied, somewhat cautiously. “I am Ryouma. Might I ask your name?”

“Azura.”

He held a hand out. It took her a moment to shake it. “Do you live here?”

“No.” In hopes of keeping the conversation brief and the suspicions she could see lingering at a minimum, Azura answered each question in as few words as possible.

Somehow, even that proved to come back to bite her. “How do you know Corrin, then?” The little one – Sakura, she’d heard the younger brother call her – asked curiously. Probably not with the intention of getting her siblings wary of her, but it was the result.

At the questioning look she was now getting from three of the four, Corrin finally stepped back in. “She’s a friend.”

“From Nohr?” The older sister asked, mouth pulled into a frown.

“No! No, not from there,” Corrin attempted to backtrack, but by then it had clicked for Ryouma and he interrupted.

“From the lake.” He said, flatly. “I take it this is the siren?”

Their shared, guilty silence was answer enough. Ryouma inhaled a deep breath and turned to say something to Azura, but then as usual, they were interrupted.

A sword was floating.

Azura was ashamed to say she felt relieved for the distraction, taking the attention off of her for a moment. She picked at a scab on her arm from running through the woods, a small red bump reminiscent of her scales.

Certainly, this was dramatic, and worth paying attention to, but her own discomfort was making it difficult to feel as awestruck as the siblings were. Her skin felt dry; irritated. There was an ache in her back. She didn’t want to imagine the poor condition of her feet.

Corrin held the sword high and that _was_ enough to take Azura’s mind off it all, and put her in another place entirely, eyes wide as she saw the dragon-girl point the sword skyward as if she was going to spear the sun itself on its tip. _Fascinating._

Corrin’s eyes glittered with something like excitement while her brother explained the background behind the sword. Azura focused on that, moreso than the explanation.

Naturally, the awe faded after a short while and she had four sets of expectant eyes on her once more after Takumi ‘helpfully’ pointed out that they still had someone to deal with. She grimaced.

“Why did you surface?”

“Corrin,” Azura replied, helpfully. There really hadn’t been any other deciding factors, because being on land was dreadful enough without a really good reason to be there. “I worried for my friend. Is it so strange?”

Ryouma and the older sister fixed her with suspicious looks, and Takumi doubly so, but at least Sakura seemed to accept the explanation. Corrin tried to take control of the conversation. “Listen, Azura helped get my rampage under control. She helped you. Can we please try to get along just for now?”

“So you admit it was a rampage.” Takumi chimed in, annoyed. “What’s to say you wouldn’t have attacked us? Why should I trust _you_ , let alone _her_?”

Corrin deflated a little; Azura cleared her throat. “Of course it was a rampage. Corrin doesn’t have a dragonstone. Even I know that shapeshifters are supposed to keep a catalyst on them.” She defended. “You’re lucky she didn’t become completely feral; Corrin might have been stuck that way forever.”

It wasn’t good news by any stretch of the imagination, but it did inform the siblings a little bit more. Corrin paled a bit at the thought, and Azura made the mental note to apologize for the info dump later. In private. When she was back in the water.

Azura shuddered again, feeling the discomfort, then swallowed it back down.

A messenger had arrived, telling them all that Nohrian soldiers were on the attack; something about a barrier going down. Everyone rushed to the scene.

It would probably be wise to get back to the water as soon as possible, she thought, grimacing at the itch on her back and how _dry_ her skin felt. ‘Probably’ was an understatement.

Still, she came this far, and with the royals suddenly rushing off in another direction, she decided she would have no choice but to grit her teeth and bear it, though Azura did spare a longing glance back in the direction of her lake.

Why did she get the feeling she would not be able to return nearly as quickly as she was hoping to?

Azura hurried after Corrin, pains forgotten.

* * *

Navigating a battlefield was hardly any easier than navigating rubble, especially for someone unused to feet. Corrin helped her through, fending off anyone that got too close to either of them and leaving them for the siblings to pick off.

Azura didn’t miss the suspicious way they looked at her, but she supposed as long as Corrin was on her side and nobody was trying to raise a weapon against her, it didn’t matter.

“Are you alright? You’re looking a little pale.” Corrin noted quietly, while they were catching their breath near a hilltop. Azura felt nearly too dazed to properly respond, so of course, the first words out of her mouth were: “Of course. I can keep going. Don’t worry about me.”

Corrin looked doubtful but accepted the response and pushed forward, and Azura felt that itch get a little stronger. There was water nearby, she knew it, but she had to hold out a little bit longer…….she took her focus off the bridge in the distance and followed Corrin further still, until they found some soldiers that looked more decorated than the rest. Nobility, certainly.

They recognized Corrin.

Everyone was too far separated to speak, so the two opposing parties met in the middle, Corrin the likely destination. Azura wavered on her feet. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Mmmmf.” Was the best response she could come up with, trying to correct her vision.

She was able to stand there wasting valuable attention for only another forty seconds or so, because after that Azura quite abruptly felt the energy from her pendant dispel entirely.

 _Oh_ , Azura thought, with the cool clarity of someone who had just made a mistake and was now frantically trying to nullify the outcome, _I suppose I pushed my luck a bit far today._ And then the gills slit themselves into her collar and she ran for the bridge, diving off and regretfully leaving Corrin behind with all the strangers. She swam gratefully a short distance from the bridge, the water easing the transition back into her normal form.

Hopefully she could be forgiven for this weakness, when it all came to pass….

Or….not?

Azura flinched away when something hit the water next to her, heavy form brushing past her tail. Then she had enough time for her water lenses to come back and realized it wasn’t just _any_ dense human body, it was _Corrin’s_.

Knowing the other girl not to be a very talented swimmer, she pulled her up, holding her head above the water in a semi-awkward hug, gripping her under the arms. “Why did you come in after me?” She asked in a haste-whisper. People were yelling on the surface.

“I was worried about you!” Corrin seemed so genuinely concerned that Azura didn’t know if she could hold it against her.

She flicked her tail about beneath her, feeling some of it skim against the bottom of the river. Much too small. “I think I hear fighting up there.”

Corrin paled and sent a guilty look up to the surface. “I….think they may be at war…”

“We caused a _war_?!” Azura’s shoulders raised, and she desperately sought clarification. “You can get them to stop, right?”

Before Corrin could give a decent sort of response, there was the sound of wingbeats and a low, silky voice calling, “Corrin! Don’t worry, I’ll pull you out of that nasty river water!” And then,

“That’s _my_ sister! Back off, you Nohrian wretch!”

Corrin flinched and Azura hastily took her by the hand. “It might be risking making things worse, but this is not a big enough space for two fighting royals. One or both of us will be skewered.”

She nodded. “I know a place we can go.”

“In the water. From here.” Azura clarified, feeling just a bit concerned Corrin’s plan might involve running across the battlefield.

Corrin nodded again. “The astral plane. I can get Lilith to open a portal not far from here and, uh, I might need a little help getting there, but it’s safe!”

“Anywhere that’s safe with water is a place I can get behind,” Azura muttered in response. “Tell me when.”

Not far away, a swirling , purple-blue rift formed. Assuming that was the portal, Azura grabbed Corrin by the waist and swam through it just in time for two shadows to appear over the river.

Then she face planted into hard, unforgiving dirt. “Oof.” She said, intelligently, tail writhing uselessly in air. Eventually she stopped, realizing they were somewhere different now, and Corrin apologetically rushed off in search of a solution. The world around them changed until deep trenches of water surrounded walkways and segments of land. Corrin helped Azura into one and she shook the dirt off in the water. “What kind of place is this?”

“The magic kind?” Corrin replied with a helpless shrug. “It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing that happened lately. Would you like to meet Lilith?”

Not to be a stick in the mud, but… “Is there any chance I could rest first?” She asked, knowing full well that if Corrin asked again she’d agree anyways, but thankfully the girl nodded.

“Of course. Time passes strangely here. Rest as long as you need to. I’ll be…..uh….I’ll be trying to find a way to fix the mess back home, I guess.” Corrin seemed daunted by the idea, but Azura gave her a reassuring smile and the other girl nodded and headed for a treehouse.

Azura let herself sink to the bottom of the trench. It was no lake, certainly, but for now, it was as comfortable as any lake had ever been. She sank gratefully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the original story of the little mermaid, it was said she felt like she was walking on daggers with each step. 
> 
> do with that what you will.

**Author's Note:**

> ok i feel the need to state ON THE RECORD that Azura is a really pretty siren but she doesnt exactly look like the next little mermaid in this au. She has a big spiny dorsal fin that goes from her back to near the end of her tail and her scales creep up to around her lower ribcage. shes also got a couple of them like dotting her shoulders and around her jawline it's pretty cool!! Also, bio-luminescence is Cool and im almost certain to screw around with that later so look forward to a glow in the dark lesbian siren
> 
> tl;dr,,,, i did say this was a monster au, so she looks, yknow, monster-ish. tbh im sorry im garbage but I hope you like this anyways


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